marcland baro/boil meter

[7810hunting]

I saw in Maple News that Marcland is advertising a digital/boil meter. Does anyone out there have one or know about them? Do they work? Do they compensant for altitude?

[Bucket Head]

Yes, it will give you the boiling point of water with the barometric pressure and your altitude already factored in. I have one and it's a good tool for getting your syrup "in the ballpark". However, a hydrometer is the standard for getting syrup density spot on.
I use mine to get an initial setting for my draw off unit and fine tune that setting (higher or lower) with what the hydrometer says.
I should add that a high quality (very accurate) thermometer needs to be used or theres no telling if your syrup is actually near what the boil meter says.
Many years ago I had a candy thermometer that was eight degrees off- eight too low! No wonder that syrup was closer to candy when it cooled. That was'nt very fun...lol.
Steve